THE GEOTRUPES 117 



rule : do good and you shall be misjudged, you shall be 

 traduced, stoned, trodden underfoot, as witness the toad, 

 the bat, the hedgehog, the owl and other auxiliaries who, 

 to serve us, ask nothing but a little tolerance. 



Now, of our defenders against the dangers of filth spread 

 shamelessly in the rays of the sun, the most remarkable, 

 in our climes, are the Geotrupes : not that they are more 

 zealous than the others, but because their size makes 

 them capable of bigger work. Moreover, when it becomes 

 simply a question of their nourishment, they resort by 

 preference to the materials which we have most to fear. 



My neighbourhood is worked by four Geotrupes. Two 

 of them, Geotrupes Mutator (Marsh) and Geotrupes 

 Sylvaticus (Panz.), are rarities on which we had best not 

 count for connected studies ; the two others, on the con- 

 trary, Geotrupes Stercorarius (Lin.) and Geotrupes Hypo- 

 crita (Schneid.), are exceedingly frequent. Black as ink 

 above, both of them are magnificently garbed below. 

 One is quite surprised to find such a jewel-case among 

 the professional scavengers. Geotrupes Stercorarius is of 

 a splendid amethyst violet on his lower surface, while 

 Geotrupes Hypocrita is lavish with the ruddy gleams of 

 copper pyrites. These are the two inmates of my 

 voler ies. 



Let us ask them first of what feats they are capable as 

 buriers. There are a dozen, of the two species taken 

 together. The cage is previously swept clean of what 

 remains of the former provisions, hitherto supplied without 

 stint. This time, I propose to arrive at what a Geotrupe 

 can put away at a sitting. At sunset, I serve to my 

 twelve captives the whole of a heap which a mule has 

 just dropped in front of my door. There is plenty of it, 

 enough to fill a basket. 



